Corporate Accountability International

Boston, MA

Studio G worked with Corporate Accountability International (CAI), a global non-profit, to merge a west coast office into the Boston headquarters for a total staff of 50. Following an intensive space programming effort, Studio G assisted CAI in identifying potential spaces, eventually selecting space in a Downtown Crossing office building.

The project’s key goals included creation of a healthy, productive work environment in support of a highly collaborative organizational culture. This was accomplished with an office landscape which maximizes daylight and connectivity. The design utilizes low bamboo partitions wherever possible to define workgroups and encourage team collaboration, and to bring daylight to all workspaces. Where private offices were required, full glass doors and side lights share daylight with adjacent workspaces. Multiple conference rooms are distributed throughout the space for ease of use by different workgroups; each has structural glass walls and doors which deliver daylight to common areas. Natural light filters deep into the space, reducing dependence on artificial lighting, and free airflow maximizes ventilation. The interior finishes and furnishings were specified to ensure excellent interior air quality.

The circulation spine of the long, attenuated space bends at one end, and turns the corner at the other. Glass at each end offers a view to the outside. Along the spine, one side is always glazed or low partitions, to support CAI’s highly collaborative and interactive office culture. At the center of the workplace is the heart of the community: an expansive staff lounge and kitchen, in which employees prepare and eat meals together, and which is large enough to gather the entire staff for celebrations.